film
The more things change...
‘Do the Right Thing’ 25 years later
by Michael J. Casey
O
n Nov. 15, the Starz Denver Film Festival will screen a 35mm revival of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, a movie that is as relevant today as when it debuted in 1989. This past summer’s headlines out of Ferguson, Missouri, and the death of Eric Garner in New York, make it clear that the events the film depicts on a hot summer day in Brooklyn in 1989 remain a sad, cruel reality for many black men in 2014. The film was Lee’s third feature and is quite possibly his best. Lee writes, produces, directs and acts in this stylish tour de force about a NYC neighborhood where blacks, Puerto Ricans and Koreans live in tedious resentment under the constantly suspecting eyes of a white police force. Even though the racial makeup of the block is black and Puerto Rican, its two businesses are run by Sal (Danny Aiello) and a Korean couple (Steve Park & Ginny Yang): a pizzeria and a grocery story respectively. Sal’s Famous Pizzeria has been there for years — before the demographic of the neighborhood shifted — and Sal is more than happy to take their money and smile at their ladies, but there is no way he’s putting a picture
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
Bill Nunn in his iconic role as Radio Raheem.
of a brother on his wall of heroes. That is where Sinatra, DiMaggio and Pacino belong, and if Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito) doesn’t like it, he can open his own pizzeria. Also populating the block: Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) and Mother Sister (Ruby Dee), the busybodies of the neighborhood; Mookie (Lee), Sal’s pizza delivery boy; and the loudest, the proudest, the articulate and aggressive, Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn). With his boom box turned up
COMEDY WARRIORS
as loud as it will go, Raheem blasts Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” on loop, bringing Robert Mitchum’s message of Right Hand/Left Hand to all who will listen, stating that in the end, love always wins. What’s so impressive about Do the Right Thing is how Lee incorporates perspectives. When Raheem delivers his Right Hand/Left Hand speech, it is directly to the camera. When characters hurl racist remarks, they do it directly to the camera. When radio DJ
Veterans Speak presents this documentary of five severely wounded Iraq/Afghanistan veterans given the opportunity to explore their experiences through the healing power of humor. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
closes in on Saigon as the South Vietnamese resistance crumbles. A number of heroic Americans engage in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations in a desperate effort to save as many South Vietnamese lives as possible. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
THE CONFORMIST
LOVE IS STRANGE
Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a coward who has spent his life accommodating others so that he can “belong.” Marcello agrees to kill a political refugee, on orders from the fascist government, even though the victim-to-be is his college mentor. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
After nearly four decades together, Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) finally tie the knot in an idyllic wedding ceremony in lower Manhattan. But when George loses his job soon after, the couple must sell their apartment and temporarily live apart. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
DARK STAR
MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT
Four bombed-out astronauts journey endlessly through the galaxy, whiling away the time with jokes, sunlamp treatment, personal diaries on videotape and games with their own pet alien. Only 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14, IFS at Muenzinger Auditorium.
DEATH RACE 2000
In a dystopian future, a cross-country automobile race requires contestants to run down innocent pedestrians to gain points that are tallied based on each kill’s brutality. Only 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15, IFS at Muenzinger Auditorium.
LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM
During the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army
50 November 13, 2014
Set in the 1920s on the opulent Riviera in the south of France, this Woody Allen flick is a romantic comedy about a master magician (Colin Firth) trying to expose a psychic medium (Emma Stone) as a fake. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
MEAN CREEK
A candid depiction of teen life in which a revenge plot against a bully goes awry. sj Miller, an award-winning teacher/writer/activist and crusader for social justice in education, will speak on the dynamics of bullying following the film. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
OPERA: II TROVATORE This musical feast from the Berlin Staatsoper stars Anna Netrebko and Plácido Domingo in debut roles at the head of an impressive ensemble
Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) calls for time, “Y’all take a chill!” he does it staring down the barrel of the lens. Lee places us firmly in these characters’ shoes and dares us to judge. Do the Right Thing debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 1989 and came out in theaters a little over a month later. At the time, there were a few (mainly middle-aged white men) who worried that it would invoke black audiences to riot. What they saw was a black mob destroying a pizzeria, not the atrocity that led to it. The ending of Do the Right Thing remains one of the most powerful and complex endings in all of cinema. Lee ends his movie with two quotes, one from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. decrying violence, and one from Malcolm X, approving its use — when necessary. Do the Right Thing is a rare work of art that balances the contradictions that are a part of everyday life without feeling the need to reconcile them. To quote Walt Whitman, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
directed by Daniel Barenboim. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
PUMP
A documentary that tells the story of America’s addiction to oil, from its corporate conspiracy beginnings to its current monopoly today, and explains clearly and simply how we can end it — and finally win choice at the pump. At Boedecker. — Boedecker Theater
TETSUO: THE IRON MAN
A strange man, who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and killed by a man out for a drive with his girlfriend. The driver then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of disease that is turning his body into scrap metal and that his victim is not actually dead. Only 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16, IFS at Muenzinger Auditorium (1B20).
THEOLOGICAL THC
There’s no better way to enjoy naïve drug scare and religious educational films than on glorious 16mm film! This is part of an IFS series of rare and oddball films, all presented on 16mm, sure to keep you in the God-fearing hands of sobriety while enjoying lots of vintage campiness in the process. Only 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13, IFS at VAC Basement Auditorium (1B20). Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
Boulder Weekly